Charles Ellicott Commentary Zechariah 14:2

"For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city." — Zechariah 14:2 (ASV)

This verse is simply a further description of the event depicted in the second half of the preceding verse.

And the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. —This was the case (with regard to Judah) in the Chaldean conquest (2 Kings 25:22). Whether or not this can be interpreted of the taking of Jerusalem by Titus, we leave it for our readers to decide, after placing the following words of Josephus (Bel. Jud. vi. 9, § 2) before them:

“And now, since his soldiers were already quite tired of killing, and yet a vast multitude still appeared to remain alive, Caesar gave orders that they should kill only those who were armed and resisted, but should take the rest alive.

However, along with those whom they had orders to kill, they also killed the aged and the infirm. But as for those who were in the prime of life and who might be useful to them, they drove them together into the Temple and shut them up within the walls of the court of the women. Over this court, Caesar appointed one of his freedmen, and also Fronto, one of his friends; this Fronto was to determine everyone’s fate according to his merits.

So this Fronto killed all those who had been seditious and robbers, who were accused by one another. But from the young men, he selected the tallest and most beautiful, and reserved them for the triumph. And as for the rest of the multitude who were above seventeen years old, he put them in bonds, and sent them to the Egyptian mines. Titus also sent a great number into the provinces as a gift to them, so that they might be destroyed in their theaters by the sword and by wild beasts; but those who were under seventeen years of age were sold for slaves.” We simply ask, what room is there for a remnant?